What began last year with a need for a “charity” badge in a Medford kid’s karate class has turned springtime into an annual season of giving for the young martial artist.

For the second year in a row, 10-year-old Jack Baker spearheaded an effort to raise thousands of dollars and assemble more than 200 Easter “bags” for children being represented by Court Appointed Special Advocates while their parents or guardians are in the court system.

“It feels really good to help the CASA kids,” Baker said when reached by phone Wednesday.

He started collecting Easter bags last year to earn a charity badge as part of his efforts toward a black belt in karate at Premier Martial Arts. This year he brought in five additional karate kids to help out.

“I decided to do it again … so other kids at the dojo could get their charity badge,” Baker said.

His grandmother, Allie Baker, said the kids raised $3,254 this year and collected all the goodies into bags made for kids of different age ranges. Allie loaded up her van and took the kids — ranging in age from 9 to 13 — everywhere they needed to go. Sometimes it was the BottleDrop station to handle can and bottle donations, other times it was shopping for gifts and supplies.

“We got together every weekend for, like, seven weeks,” Allie Baker said. “Cumulative kid hours, it was like 200 hours.”

Jack Baker said that he and his friends pursuing a black belt picked out “a whole bunch of stuff” for the kids including stuffed animals, rubber balls, yo-yos, coloring books and crayons. Allie Baker mentioned gift cards to places such as Dairy Queen and MOD Pizza, as well.

Allie Baker said she did the driving and helped with instructions from time to time, but she gave all credit to the kids.

“They did the majority of the work, I just did the instructing,” Allie said.

The bags arrived sorted by age range, according to Jennifer Mylenek, executive director of CASA of Jackson and Josephine counties. She described the sight of six kids in karate uniforms making the delivery as a precious sight.

“They came in their little Karate gis,” Mylenek said. “It was really cute.”

When reached by phone late Wednesday afternoon, Mylenek said she expects that her CASA volunteers will have collected all of the Easter bags by Friday. The bags of springtime cheer will go to the abused and neglected children and youth whom the volunteers normally represent in court proceedings.

Mylenek said CASA volunteers familiar with the success of the program last year eagerly called her office asking when the Easter bags were ready.

“We’ve just had CASAs coming in every day,” Mylenek said.

She said the CASAs and her office get thank-you cards from some of the gift recipients.

“It’s kids helping other kids,” Mylenek said.

Because of the Easter bag program’s popularity, Mylenek voiced hope that Jack will continue it and maybe start his own charity.

Jack was less sure about next year, but he knows he wants to keep helping CASA. His grandmother said she will be ready to jump in however he wants to help.

“I think it’s amazing,” Allie Baker said. “The kid has a huge heart.”